How many traditional Chinese festivals are there?

China has a long history and rich cultural connotation, of which festival culture is an important component of traditional culture. There are sixteen traditional festivals in Chinese traditional culture, which are Spring Festival, Lantern Festival, Dragon Head Lifting Festival, Shangsi Festival, Cold Food Festival, Qingming Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Tanabata Festival, Mid-Yuan Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival, Chungyang Festival, Haoyuan Festival, Lapa Festival, Winter Solstice Festival, Zaosi Festival and New Year's Eve. Cold Food Festival is one of the sixteen traditional festivals in China, and was once one of the most important traditional festivals in Chinese folklore. In the course of its long history, it has gone through the process of going from non-existence to existence, and from flourishing to declining, and it is a typical example of traditional festivals that have been fused and disappeared with the changes in folklore. In today's multicultural world, revisiting the history, development and decline of the Cold Food Festival is of great significance for the protection of traditional festival culture in reality.

(I) The Origin of the Cold Food Festival

The Cold Food Festival is generally located one hundred and five days after the winter solstice, so it is also known as the "One Hundred and Five Days" or "One Hundred and Five Days", and its important custom is to forbid fire and cold food, so it is also known as the Festival of the Prohibition of Smoking and the Cold Food Festival. The Cold Food Festival is a festival with rich connotations, and the main customs include fire banning, cold food (there are many kinds of cold food, the earlier ones include molasses and congee, etc.), ancestor worship, cockfighting, cuju, and the play of swinging. Except for the prohibition of fire and cold food, most of the other customs have been integrated through cultural changes.

Chinese dumplings at the Cold Food Festival, photo from the Internet

Children's cuju, photo from the Internet

The Cold Food Festival was one of the major festivals in ancient times, and the "Chronicle of the Years and Seasons" said that "the winter, the first, and the cold food are the three major festivals", and its formation can be traced back to the Zhou Dynasty, which, according to the historical data, should be connected with the earliest origins of the festival. According to historical data, the earliest origin of the Cold Food Festival should be related to the ritual of sacrificing to the Great Mars in the Zhou Dynasty. At present, there are three main doctrines for the origin of the Cold Food Festival in the research of historians and folklorists: the prohibition of fire in the Zhou Dynasty, the change of fire in ancient times, and the commemoration of Jie Zi Tui. The first two doctrines are mainly put forward by historians based on historical research, while the latter is mainly understood by folklorists based on folk sensibility.

About the ban on fire, the earliest documentary record is the Zhou Dynasty, "Zhouli - Sixuan's" recorded: "in the middle of spring to Muduo repair fire ban in the country." This view is mostly recognized by later generations of researchers, but for the Zhou Dynasty, why in the spring of the fire ban, and each holds its own view, which dominates the view is the star worship. From the Tang and Song dynasty after the relevant information to support, twenty-eight stars in people's daily life plays a huge role, and even twenty-eight stars in each of the hosts are honored as God, this is mainly because of the appearance and disappearance of the law of each star, have a decisive significance for the crop harvest, and thus become the focus of public attention. Tang Dynasty Li Xian in the note "Houhan Book - Zhouju biography" "Taiyuan County old custom to meson push the burned skeleton has a dragon taboo ban", said: "Dragon Star, the position of the wood is also seen in the east in the spring. The heart of the fire, fear of the fire of the full, so for the prohibition of fire." In other words, the cold food festival ban on fire said. That is to say, the cold food festival fire ban said in the word "fire", originally astronomical Mars, fire ban is based on the worship of the stars held by the people of one of the rituals dedicated to the planet Mars.

The Great Fire Planet, the second planet of the heart, image from the Internet

Some people believe that it is one of the rituals of the fire ban, while others believe that it is a separate fire ritual, and there is no documentary evidence about the relationship between the two. The theory that the cold food fire ban is related to the ancient practice of changing fire is found in many documents. According to legend, in ancient times, Suiren saw a big bird pecking at the wood and knew that there was fire in the wood, so he created the method of drilling wood to get fire. "Historical Records - Zhongni disciples biography" Zaiyu said "drilling flint fire, the period can be carried forward", Ma Rong note: "Zhou book - the month order" has a more fire of the text, spring to take the fire of the elm and willow, summer to take the fire of jujube and apricot, seasonal summer to take the fire of mulberry and cudgel, autumn to take the fire of the Quercus and Narayana, the winter to take the fire of the acacia sandalwood, the middle of the year, the drilling fire varies, it is said that 'change fire'". The purpose of changing the fire at different times of the year was mainly to prevent seasonal diseases. The Northern History - Wang Huilong turn" with "Wang Shao turn" in "(Wang) Shao above the meaning of the ancient turn flint fire, the abolition of modern times, and then on the table please change the fire said: "I would like to case" Zhou Guan ":" four times the change of the fire to save the time of the disease ', the Ming fire is not a number of changes, the time of the disease must be emerging. The saint made law, not in vain?" Can be seen in ancient times, the system of fire ban does exist.

Related to the change of fire on the causes of cold food customs have "mourning sacrifice" and "fasting rituals" two kinds of statements. The former, as Mr. Qiu Xigui thinks: "The prototype of the burnt to death Jie Zi Tui should be the human sacrifices who were burnt to death as the representative of the god of grain in the fire change", so "I am afraid that the cold food is not only a negative result due to the cease-fire, but also it should have a significance of mourning for the sacrifices of the people who died as the representative of the god in the fire change. ". The latter, such as Mr. Yang Lin, believes that because of the custom of cold food in the custom of changing the fire, the cold food festival is also a kind of "fasting ceremony", which contains two meanings: on the one hand, completely extinguishing the old fire can avoid the rekindling of the ashes or meeting with the new fire, which can also avoid the harm; on the other hand, this kind of fasting is to show that it is a solemn and respectful way to welcome the new fire god, which is the most important thing. On the other hand, this kind of fasting is to show the solemnity and respect when welcoming the new fire god, so as to win the favor of the new fire god and play the function of blessing. But our fasting does not have to cold food cultural tradition, cold food festival is also "fasting ceremony" point of view there are some mistakes.

And Jie Zi Tui is the most widely circulated and accepted folk legend of the origin of the cold food festival. Jie Zi Pui said that the Cold Food Festival is to commemorate the Spring and Autumn period of the state of Jin was burned to death by the fire of the loyal minister Jie Zi Pui, this argument is doubtful on the historical data, but folklore is widely supported, is considered to be the explanation of the origins of the festival of the Cold Food of the folk will be attached. The qin drill" said: "jin wengong and jiezi sui died, jiezi sui cut the stock to bite wengong, wengong restored, jiezi sui only no gain, jiezi sui made "song of the dragon and the serpent" and hidden. Duke Wen begged, refused to come out, was burnt around the wood, Zisui hold wood and died. The Duke of Wen mourned the death of Zisui, who was forbidden to raise fire on the fifth day of the fifth month. '' which Zi Sui refers to is Jie Zi push, the main plot of the account is basically the same: Jie Zhi push in the heavy ear when the fleeing, loyal, not hesitate to meat eat hungry heavy ear and loyal; heavy ear after becoming king, Jie Zhi push the sweat of the horse's work but the tragedy of the pay can not be received, so (with his mother) to live in seclusion in the mountains; the Duke of Jin repented, and wanted to burn the mountains to force the king to burn the mountains and hide. I wanted to burn the mountain to force Jie Zhi push initiative to come out of the mountain, but unexpectedly Jie Zhi push embrace wood and died.

Jie Zi Tui and his mother died holding the wood, picture from the network

The earliest to put forward this doctrine is the two Han period of Huan Tan, who pointed out in the "New Theory" of the "away from the matter," "the people of Taiyuan County in the midst of the winter does not fire when five days, although there is a disease of slow and urgent, but do not dare to commit, for the jie Zi The Jade Candle Book of Treasures cites Yecheng Ji, which also says, "The custom in Hezhou is to break the fire and eat cold food a hundred and five days after the winter solstice for Jie Zi Tui. Cao Cao made a similar statement in his ban on fires, "I heard that Taiyuan, Shangdang, Xihe, and Yanmen all cut off fires and cold food for a hundred and five days after the winter solstice, and the cloud was Jie Zi Tui". This view was widely spread before the North and South Dynasties, and later scholars raised objections. The Southern Dynasty's Zong Security Department in the "Jingchu Years and Times" clearly pointed out that according to the "Zuozhuan" and the "Records of the Grand Historian", there was no such thing as Jie Zi Tui being burned. And in "Zhuangzi - Thief Plantarsal", it is written: "Jie Zi Tui was loyal to the extent that he cut off his own shares to eat the Duke of Wen. Duke Wen's back Zi push angry and go to hold wood and burnt to death." Liu Xiang, "New Preface - Scholarship", also reads: "...... (Jie Zi Tui) then did not go out and burnt to death." In the historical materials, there is no statement that Jie Zi Tui is directly related to the Cold Food Festival. However, although historians doubt this, but does not prevent this view is widely recognized by the folk, which is also "return to the folk and folk" view of cultural protection advocated.